Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble (Noah Zarc, #1) (16 page)

“Did you go there?”

She shook her head. “Sadly the funding dried up. The Poligarchy decided it was too costly and didn’t produce a large enough return on their investment. Dr. Fletcher died shortly after the LCAS closed their doors in 2999—their seventieth anniversary.”

She dabbed her eyes with her sleeve.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“He was a good friend.”

Three hours later I was sitting on the floor in the cockpit. A strap over my lap, connected to grommets in the floor, held me down. Obadiah floated nearby, sound asleep. Adina sat cross-legged in front of me.

I held up my hand. “Hand.”

Adina repeated: “Hand.”

I pointed to my nose. “Nose.”

“Nose.”

“Eyes,” I said.

“Eyes.” As she said it, hers twinkled with delight. I’d never seen eyes so full of life.

“You’re getting it!” I felt my cheeks burning.

I waited a moment to be sure my voice wouldn’t quaver. “Ears.”

“Ears.”

Then I held up my hand again.

“Hand,” Adina said.

“Very good, you’re catching on quick.” I circled my hand around my face. “Face.”

“Face.”

I really liked looking at her face. Embarrassed, I looked to see what Obadiah was doing. Still air-sleeping.

I turned back and pointed to my nose again.

“Nose,” she said, grinning.

The computer crackled behind me, “…just left the surface…”

I twisted around, bumping against Obadiah, who careened across the room, hitting the wall. He yelped and gave me a dirty look. I unstrapped and pushed to the pilot’s chair.

“Computer, isolate signal and clean up.”

“…I’m on my way. I may have an idea how to stop Haon.”

“Dad, it’s me, Noah.”

“…I don’t have time to explain but I should be there before him.”

“Computer, why can’t he hear me?”

“The message was sent thirty-two minutes ago.”

I opened a comm-link to Mom, who had gone to the bunkroom to rest.

“It’s Dad.”

“I’ll be there in a second.”

I turned back to the computer. “Can you play back the whole message?”

“The message was on loop. Recording now.”

I waited impatiently for the computer to start the message. Mom burst into the room.

“Where is he? Is he on his way?”

“I don’t know, the computer’s recording his message now. It was a looped transmission just like ours.”

“Message recorded.”

“Playback from the beginning, please,” Mom said.

Adina put her Triple-B in her ear.

“I’m relieved to hear you’re okay, Hannah. I didn’t receive your message until we were already in orbit around Mars. I just left the surface—there was something I had to do first. I know time is tight, but I’m on my way. I may have an idea how to stop Haon. I can’t explain now but I should be there before him. I love you.

“And Noah, we need to have a talk when we see each other again.”

“End of transmission,” the computer said.

Mom gripped the back of my chair. “That’s it? That man drives me batty sometimes. What’s he mean he can’t explain now?”

“What do we do?” I said.

“We keep going.” Mom buckled in the seat beside me. “What’s he up to? He’s got the
Morning Star
, which can travel faster than both the
DUV III
and Haon’s XB Class ship, but there’s no way he can get here in time.” Mom’s face went pale. “Unless… No, surely he wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t what?”

“Never mind, I’m sure your father knows what he’s doing.” Then she muttered, “If not, he’ll have me to answer to.”

“It is not our policy to negotiate with terrorists.”

The leader of the Poligarchy tilted his perfect head of hair back and looked down his hawkish nose. His smooth complexion hinted at the years of drugs and surgery that kept up his youthful appearance. I had no idea how old he was, but Mom said he had been Prime Senator when she was my age.

“You must understand, Mrs. Zarc—we simply do not have the resources to stop this… madman. The ships stationed on the moon can’t handle inter-atmospheric flight, for obvious reasons. And we most certainly cannot agree to hand over Earth to a group of thugs.”

I’d never been to Venus, but “thugs” wasn’t a word that seemed to fit the people living there.

“What do you expect us to do, then?” Mom’s voice rose slightly, then she checked herself. “Prime Senator Sarx.”

“You will do what you have always done. Defend the Earth and be her one hope for a bright future.”

Political speak for
you’re on your own.

“We’ll do our best, sir.” I could see the disappointment in Mom’s eyes. What had she expected—a fleet of warships?

“Please keep my secretary apprised of the situation.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The Prime Senator waved his perfectly manicured fingers. The screen went black. Mom slumped in her chair.

I had to admit, Sarx sure didn’t seem like the benevolent leader I’d been brought up to believe in.

“Sorry, Mom.”

“It was no more than I expected. Just less than I’d hoped.”

We were nearing Earth. Adina returned to the window where she’d been sitting, watching for any sign of Haon’s ship. My instruments showed nothing but empty space between us and Earth.

“Sometimes I really wonder if—“

A bright light flared on my screen. A ship was moving towards us from the far side of the planet. I looked at the clock. Haon’s twenty-four hours had just expired.

“Right on time.”

I put the display on the main screen. Adina pressed her face to the window.

“Is that him?” she said.

I looked out at a black smear covering the top half of the North American continent and part of the Atlantic. Sunlight flashed off a ship dropping quickly toward the atmosphere.

“It couldn’t be anyone else.”

I applied reverse thrusters. Maybe we could stop him before he entered the atmosphere. I glanced at the screen, making slight adjustments to our course—

A dozen or so ships materialized out of nowhere. The blips converged on Haon’s ship.

“Whoa, where’d they come from?”

Mom frowned at the screen. “I’ve never seen ships like that before.”

“Computer, identify class please,” I said.

“Unable to identify.”

“They look almost like DUV class, but much bigger.” Mom enlarged an image of one of the ships. “And they’re armed.”

Sure enough, there were rocket arrays under each wing.

“They have warp manifolds.” I glanced at her. “They’re jumpers!”

“Whoever they are, they’re going after Haon,” Adina said. She moved away from the window and back into her seat. Anticipating a bumpy ride?

“Let’s just hope they’re on our side,” I said. “We could use all the help we can get.”

I increased the throttle on the reverse thrusters and allowed gravity to tug the
DUV III
toward Haon’s ship and the small fleet surrounding him. At first he seemed unaware of the ships—then he nosed into a steep dive.

“He better be careful or he’ll burn himself up.”

“Save us the trouble,” Mom said.

Haon’s ship began to glow. Half the fleet behind him nosed down too. Within seconds they were burning into the atmosphere.

“What are they doing?” I’d read about some crazy maneuvers, even tried a few in the simulators, but what they were doing was suicidal.

Haon’s ship flared, a burning meteor plummeting toward Earth. Then he vanished. One moment his ship was a fireball—then he was gone.

“He jumped on entry!” I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Unfortunately, the ships pursuing him weren’t all as quick. I watched, horrified, as two of them exploded after the heat caused by atmospheric friction burned into their fuel tanks.

The remaining ships in orbit winked out. They must have locked onto Haon’s warp signature somehow. I looked at Mom. “What now?”

“I think we should continue to de-orbit,” she said. “He needs to get into the lower atmosphere to release the nano-virus.”

I inched the ship’s nose up slightly. Already we were catching the top layers of the atmosphere—I was able to use the friction along her lower hull to slow down further.

“He’s back!” Adina shouted.

I looked out the window. A ship spiraled toward Earth, surrounded by burning debris that looked like the remains of at least two ships. For a moment I thought there’d be no pulling out of that dive, but somehow Haon managed it. Chunks of burning metal bounced off his ship as he got it under control and leveled off.

Had I inherited some of my piloting skills from—

“Can you get us down there, Noah.” It wasn’t a question. Mom was getting a little frantic.

I adjusted course to intercept. The ship started to heat up as it plunged into the atmosphere.

“What do we do when we catch him?” I brought up a projection of Earth on the holoscreen. A red flashing light showed Haon’s ship somewhere over the Pacific, and a green flashing light showed the
DUV III
over the northern reaches of Africa. There were no other ships.

“For the nano-virus to have maximum effect, he has to find the ideal location for it to spread.” She looked at the holoscreen. “I think he’ll release it over the equator, up about six kilometers.”

“So we have to stop him before he descends that far.”

“Somehow, yes.” She massaged her eyelids with her fingers. “I wish your father hadn’t listened to me. I was the one who insisted we not have a weapons system on board the
DUV III.
”

“You were right,” I said. “We’re scientists—”

“Noah, Han…you?” The comm barked to life, but static overpowered the signal.

“That was Dad!” I said. “Reentry must be messing with the transmission.”

“…anti… risk getting killed…”

“Is there anything you can do to clean it up?” Even as she said it, Mom was working frantically to boost the signal and clear out the static.

“Not until we get out of this.” I nodded toward the flames burning outside the window and pushed forward on the yoke.

Mom and Adina glanced at each other and gripped the arms of their seats. The ship rattled violently.

“Noah?” Mom said.

“She’ll hold up.” We were engulfed in orange and red fire. “I’m taking her in much steeper than recommended. Might get a little hot in here.”

The temperature rose until sweat poured off our bodies. Obadiah panted in Mom’s arms. Great globs of drool spun out from his jowls toward the ceiling. Just when I thought the air was going to burn up in my chest, we broke through the upper atmosphere. I fired the rear thrusters, yanked the nose up, and pulled out of the semi-controlled fall. The blue of the Pacific Ocean spread beneath us in every direction. I scanned the horizon.

“There!” Adina pointed.

Three or four kilometers ahead, I saw a long contrail streaking through the sky. I adjusted course.

“It’s going to get bumpy.”

“Bumpier than what we just went through?” Adina hollered over the roar of the engines.

Mom flipped on the comm. “Noah, can you read me? This is Hannah.”

There was only static. I looked at the display.

“I still don’t see any other ships,” I said.

Even if that was Dad we heard, I didn’t have time to worry about it. Haon was dropping fast. I pushed the
DUV III
forward.

We rocketed through the air at speeds normally reserved for spaceflight. Air friction kept the wings’ edges glowing red-hot. Sonic booms exploded around us. I struggled to keep our ship steady. Haon’s leveled off, and we drew within a kilometer.

“Computer, what’s our altitude?” I said.

“Twelve kilometers.”

I allowed myself a little smile. We might just make it. I pointed the
DUV III
at the underside of Haon’s ship and slowed down so we wouldn’t fly past him.

“Altitude, ten kilometers.”

Haon’s XB Class glided ahead of us, dropping through the air toward the surface. I brought the
DUV III
within a few hundred meters and lowered our speed.

“It doesn’t look like he knows we’re here,” I said. “If I can just pull ahead of him, I can fire the rear thrusters and maybe take him down.”

“Like the mammoth,” Adina said.

“Be careful,” Mom said. “We don’t want his ship to explode at this altitude and release the nano-virus into the atmosphere.”

I shoved the yoke forward and matched the descent of the XB Class.

“Seven kilometers.”

“Okay, hold on.” I pulled up underneath Haon. The scorched underside of his ship passed only four meters above us.

“A little more.”

Just when we were about to pass his ship, I heard a loud roar. Haon fired his thrusters.

“He saw us!” The XB Class shot ahead, then dove to keep us from getting under him again. I banked left when the flames from his ship smashed into the
DUV III
.

We pitched sideways. I decided not to fight it and pulled the ship into a roll. We corkscrewed through the air several times, the earth spinning in front of us. After a few nerve-wracking seconds, I was able to get her back under control. I hit the thrusters and rocketed toward Haon, who fled to our right.

I checked the display.

“The good news is he’s dropped to nearly three kilometers. Now all we have to do is keep him from climbing back up to six.”

I pushed the
DUV III
to her limits. In a matter of seconds, his ship was directly in front of us again. The XB Class rocked back and forth, trying to shake us.

“It looks like he thinks we’re armed.”

“Maybe we can use that,” Mom said. “Computer, open a channel to the XB Class.”

It only took a couple of seconds.

“Haon, this is Hannah Zarc. I’m not going to let you deploy that bomb.”

“Hannah. I thought it was you. By your flying it looks like you have my twerp of a son on board too.”

“I’m not a twerp!” I yelled.

Mom shot me a look. “
My
son can fly circles around you. Better give it up. We’ll stop you by any means necessary.”

“What are you going to do, shoot me out of the sky? Do you really want to turn
your
son into a murderer?”

Mom looked at me and swallowed hard.

“He understands the value of life, more than you can possibly comprehend. But if it means stopping a madman—”

“Oh, a madman. That’s rich. Go ahead, fire on me.”

Mom swore, then looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

“It’s okay, Mom. I know who he is.” I turned back to the controls and moved the
DUV III
just above and behind Haon’s ship. “But we can talk about it later.”

She looked at Haon’s ship weaving and dodging in front of us and spoke into the comm.

“Wouldn’t you rather just find a place to land and give me the nano-virus?”

“You don’t even have weapons on that ship, do you?” Haon laughed. “I should have known. You and my brother wouldn’t dream of using violence to solve your problems.” More laughter. “Fortunately I’m not handicapped by such shortcomings.”

Haon opened his air brakes. His ship dropped beneath us and popped up behind the
DUV III
.

“Noah, get us out of here!” Mom screamed.

I shoved the yoke forward and left. The
DUV III
plummeted. Loud beeping filled the cockpit.

“The XB Class has achieved missile lock,” the computer said.

We flew straight down. Bright, blue ocean filled the window in front of us.

“Two Mark 7 missiles fired. Impact in ten-seconds.”

“Just a little… bit… more…” I pushed aside the thought that my own father was trying to kill me and let instinct take over. My knuckles went white on the yoke.

“Five. Four. Three.”

I yanked back. The
DUV III
shuddered but pulled out of the dive moments before hitting the ocean waves. An explosion rocked the ship as the rockets smashed into the sea. Geysers of water shot into the air.

“My son is quite the pilot, but how long can he keep it up?” Haon sounded smug, but I could tell he was mad, too.

I saw land ahead of us and pushed the
DUV III
to her limits.

“You’re not making this easy on me—”

Mom reached forward and slapped the comm, cutting Haon off.

“Maybe we should head back to orbit, Noah.”

“No way.” My jaw tightened. “If we do, he wins.”

“If we do, we live.”

“It’s not over yet, I have an idea.” We rocketed over the coast of what was once southern California.

“Missile lock confirmed.”

I banked left, and then back right.

“Missile lock lost.”

I smiled. “He was too far away.”

California sped by in a blur below. I hugged the terrain as closely as I dared. A line of mountains in front of us made me smile.